Whoa, Amazon is now valued at more than $101 billion

Amazon's stock performance over the past 10 years. (Click on chart for more)

Remember those folks who once declared that Amazon was “toast?” Well, where are they now? Amazon.com’s stock has surged above $223 per share this week, giving the iconic Seattle online retailer a whopping market value of $101 billion.

The company’s rise over the past decade has been nothing short of remarkable. Many analysts thought Amazon wouldn’t survive the dot com bust, including one who famously dubbed the company “Amazon.toast.” But since that period 10 years ago — a distant memory before it launched Kindles or Amazon Web Services — the stock has risen 2,498 percent.

As the chart above shows, there were some relatively stagnant years in there from 2003 to 2007. But since then, the stock has been on an absolute rocket ship. (And not the kind that Jeff Bezos tried to launch in a Texas desert earlier this month).

Just to put things in perspective, Amazon has a long way to go before it catches up with its Seattle area compatriot. Microsoft, whose stock price has actually fallen six percent over the past 10 years, still commands a market value of $225 billion.

Apple, which is becoming increasingly competitive with Amazon, remains the largest tech company on the planet with a market value of $364 billion.

Amazon actually topped $100 billion in late July, but the stock fell back during August. Financial reporter Greg Heberlein — a one-time skeptic — pointed out on a recent appearance on KPLU that Amazon is only the second company in the Pacific Northwest to top $100 billion.

John Cook is GeekWire's co-founder and editor, a veteran reporter and the longest-serving journalist on the Pacific Northwest tech startup beat. Follow him @johnhcook and email john@geekwire.com.

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Comments

Great to see Seattle companies — even the long-time blockbusters — keep on climbing.

Guest

Look up the historical sustainability of 90+ PEs.

Guest2

A P/E ratio of nearly 100? Yeah, this thing is insanely overvalued. It’s all about the Greater Fool Theory at this point.

Eric

I agree completely about Amazon being overvalued. They’re a solid company that is profitable and growing, that is all true. But they’re not growing *that* fast. Especially when you see a company like Apple with a P/E of 15, this just seems completely out of line.